Officially Busy

I thought, when I decided to retire from my “day job” of singing in a band, that December would be a quiet month. A little gentle shopping, Christmas TV, and maybe a bit of a carol sing. In honesty, I was dreading it. I’m happiest when I’m busy.

I could not have been more wrong. I’ve got the most frantic December I’ve ever had. The season kicked off last night with comedy shows at two separate venues (thank you to all you Pop Club folks who came along to support) and today we have our double-gig, followed by Portman Road on Monday – more on which below.

Some of you are going even further however, and adding our Wreath Making event, kindly hosted by Elaine (Ipswich Soprano), to your schedule.

Portman Road - Monday 1st September

If you’re coming to Portman Road on Monday, can you (just this once, I promise) make sure you’re in a Pop Club Choir top, ideally hoody, plus blue jeans. BBC Look East plus other press may be there so it’ll be good to get our name out. I’ll be bringing some MND Association hats for you to wear.

If you’re not on the list for this gig but would like to come, you can send me a message on 07973 110075 and I’ll add you to the ‘manual system’. Spectators are welcome and I don’t need a list of names for them. The list is just for choir folks in order to get on to the pitch.

I have to nip up to Heathrow in the morning to get Helen and Tallulah from the airport so don’t panic if I’m not there at my usual stupidly early time. I will be there!

You can download a map showing the parking and the entrance to use at popclubchoir.uk/parking.

Carols at Ipswich Sports Club - Wednesday 10th December

We’re going to sing our Christmas Set and lead some carols after the Ipswich Christmas Meal (same as last year but eat first and sing second). This is open to all choirs so you’re welcome to come along to the gig and/or the meal. Spectators welcome too, both to watch the performance and join us for food if they’d like. We’ve plenty of room in the function room.

We’ll shaking a tin for the wonderful St Elizabeth Hospice.

Book your place at the gig by going to the Calendar section and hitting Gigs. Order your meal at popclubchoir.uk/shop

Registration Numbers to members’ area

If you’re coming along to the gig at West Suffolk Hospital on Monday 15th December, please check your car registration number is up to date in the Account section of the members’ area. This will be passed to the parking people at the site so that we can get free parking. We’ll be sending that over soon and once sent, I’m not confident that we’ll be able to add any more to the list which means you’ll have to pay to park.

I know the hospital car park is pretty busy in the day but by the time we’re singing it should have cleared out a bit. I didn’t have any problems last year so I’m keeping my fingers crossed it’ll be much the same this year.

Final week of Rehearsals

With such a busy month, I’m expecting to see plenty of you in December but officially, term ends at the end of this up-coming week. As always, I’ll update the “set list” area in the Calendar. Hit the button for your choir to see what we’ll be covering!

The songs for next term are ready to go. I’ve just got to decide whether to start with the more modern one or with the a very highly ranking “classic track”. The new term tends to quite “taster-heavy” so I’m leaning towards the latter. Decision to follow after a brief “Board Meeting” in my head.

The following week we’ve our Christmas meals. I’m going to all (well, all the "all choir" ones that is – quite a few sectional nights out going on too. I’m looking forward to the MD Christmas Breakfast at the Marina Café).

Website

The new Song Suggestions page is finished (bar any bugs you find) but I’m wrapping it up in a complete rebuild of the Members’ Area as the new page doesn’t play too nicely with the current version of the website.

I’ll be squeezing in as much work on it as I can over the next few weeks so it should be up and running and relatively wrinkle free for the start of the new term.

If you have any questions then do get in touch. You can email me at ed@popclubchoir.uk, or WhatsApp, call or text on 07973 110075.

Ed